Brits favor keeping private messages private, poll shows

The polling commissioned by the Center for Democracy & Technology found that 93 percent of British adults believe they have a right to private conversations online, while 89 percent think nobody should be able to access their personal messages without a court order. These figures indicate a strong preference for keeping messages private among the surveyed population. The results were gathered by Public First from 2,000 British adults in April and weighted to reflect the wider population, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

Distrust of government access appears across political lines. Among those who voted in the 2024 general election, 58 percent of Labour voters, 59 percent of Conservatives, 56 percent of Liberal Democrats, 69 percent of Greens, and 75 percent of Reform voters said they would not trust any government with the power to access encrypted messages. This broad consensus suggests the concern is not limited to a single party or ideology.

The polling coincides with the UK government's ongoing efforts to obtain encrypted data, highlighted by Apple's withdrawal of Advanced Data Protection for UK users after receiving a secret Technical Capability Notice under the Investigatory Powers Act. Although many respondents had not heard about the Apple notice, once presented with the idea, only 12 percent backed the government being able to secretly order companies to provide access, while a third said the government should not have that power at all. The remainder favored greater transparency or parliamentary oversight.

Respondents also expressed concrete worries about security and self-censorship. Fifty-three percent said the security risks of accessing encrypted messages outweighed the benefits, compared with 28 percent who thought the benefits came out on top. Eighty-four percent worried that access mechanisms could introduce vulnerabilities for hackers and criminals, and 82 percent were concerned the powers could be abused. Additionally, 65 percent said they would become more cautious about what they liked, shared, or commented on, and 41 percent said they would self-censor criticism of public institutions or officials.